10 Things I Wish I Knew About Miles & Points When Starting Out

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A key to faster achievement is to learn from the mistakes of others. That way you save time by not having to make those mistakes yourself!

2 – Having a Lot of Credit Cards Does NOT Hurt Your Credit Score

When you pay your bills on time each month and maintain good relationships with the banks, you’ll have an excellent chance of getting the best sign-up bonuses. This is the fastest way to earn more miles and points!

Enjoy Great Deals While They Last! I Found a Cheap Flight to Iceland for a First-Hand Look at Their Friendly Culture and Beautiful Landscapes

3 – Have a Strategy

It’s better to have a lot of miles or points in a single program instead of spread out. In other words, 20,000 points each in 5 different programs is usually NOT as good as having 100,000 points in 1 program.

6 – Credit Partner Airline Flights to Your Main Mileage Program

For instance, if you have a paid flight on SWISS, earning miles in their program might not be too helpful. Instead, enter your United Airlines frequent flyer number. (Because they’re both in the Star Alliance.)

7 – When You Learn the Basics, Keep Learning the More Advanced Rules

Each mileage program has rules for how you can redeem your miles. It’s worth learning them. For example, United Airlines lets you build in a stopover or open-jaw, which makes your award ticket even more valuable.

8 – Airline Alliances Let You Fly Worldwide

Say you pick American Airlines to be your main airline program. But did you know you can book an award seat on partner airlines like Cathay Pacific, Finnair, or Qantas to fly to more places all over the world?

Most airlines are part of 3 main alliances. It’s worth knowing which airlines are included in each alliance. Some of our favorite trips have been on airline alliance partners.

I Had a Restful Flight in Cathay Pacific First Class (a oneworld Alliance Partner) by Using American Airlines Miles

9 – Always Get the Miles or Points

It doesn’t matter if you fly an airline once or have a stay in a hotel you think you won’t return to – always get the miles or points while you can. Because you never know when those miles might come in handy.

10 – The Best Use of Miles Is for What Brings You Happiness

Too often we can get caught up chasing the highest points redemptions possible…the international First Class flight, or the luxury hotel stay in an exotic location. And it’s fun to do that!

But it’s also important to use travel as a way to be closer to our loved ones.

Bottom Line

There’s always more to learn about this hobby. But ultimately, the best way to use your miles and points is for what makes YOU happy. And you can do that because there are so many ways to personalize how you earn and redeem your miles and points.

With that in mind, what do YOU wish you knew when you started collecting miles & points?

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Editorial Disclaimer: Neither the responses below nor the editorial content on this page are provided or commissioned by the bank advertisers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertisers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the bank advertisers. It is not the bank advertisers’ responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

3 responses to “10 Things I Wish I Knew About Miles & Points When Starting Out”

I opened 2 Chase Southwest cards in mid-december. I checked Amex pre-qualifications and I’m pre-qualified for the platinum (offering 100,000 bonus). Is it too soon after the Chase cards to be opening another card? Also, how often does Amex have an offer like this?

@Hassib – There aren’t any hard and fast rules about how often you can sign-up for new cards. So if you find a great offer, you might decide to take it! That said, I usually wait ~90 days between applications to space them out.

The 100,000 point bonus on the AMEX Platinum Card doesn’t come around very often, at least publicly.

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